Iraqi legislative election of December 2005

Iraqi parliamentary election, December 2005

← 2005 (Jan) 15 December 2005 2010 →
All 275 seats to the Council of Representatives of Iraq 138 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari Massoud Barzani Tariq al-Hashimi Party UIA (Shi'a) DPAK (Kurdish) Tawafuq (Sunni) Last election 140 75 - Seats won 128 53 44 Seat change 12* 22* 44* Popular vote 5,021,137 2,642,172 1,840,216 Percentage 41.2% 21.7% 15.1% Swing 7% 4% N/A
Colours denote which party won the most votes in every governorate
Prime Minister before election Ibrahim al-Jaafari UIA Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki UIA

Ibrahim al-Jaafari
UIA

Nouri al-Maliki
UIA

Following the ratification of the Constitution of Iraq on 15 October 2005, a general election was held on 15 December to elect a permanent 275-member Iraqi Council of Representatives.

The elections took place under a list system, whereby voters chose from a list of parties and coalitions. 230 seats were apportioned among Iraq's 18 governorates based on the number of registered voters in each as of the January 2005 elections, including 59 seats for Baghdad Governorate. The seats within each governorate were allocated to lists through a system of Proportional Representation. An additional 45 "compensatory" seats were allocated to those parties whose percentage of the national vote total (including out of country votes) exceeds the percentage of the 275 total seats that they have been allocated. Women were required to occupy 25% of the 275 seats.

The change in the voting system would give more weight to Arab Sunni voters, who make up most of the voters in several provinces. It was expected that these provinces would thus return mostly Sunni Arab representatives, after most Sunnis boycotted the last election.

Turnout was high (70%). The White House was encouraged by the relatively low levels of violence during polling, with one insurgent group making good on a promised election day moratorium on attacks, even going so far as to guard the voters from attack. President Bush frequently pointed to the election as a sign of progress in rebuilding Iraq. However, post-election violence threatened to plunge the nation into civil war, before the situation began to calm in 2007. The election results themselves produced a shaky coalition government headed by Nouri al-Maliki.